Vendor lied on property form about flooding three months after buying my house has flooded

loubel

Before worrying about whether you can claim against the seller, does your son have full buildings and contents insurance to cover his immediate losses?

It seems a bit odd that the property has flooded twice in recent years but was not identified as a flood risk. Have you actually seen the environmental search result? Did he have any issues getting flood cover on his insurance?

Also, were the flood defences the previous owners mentioned still installed? If so, did son use them and they failed? 

Cazzy1964

loubel said:

Before worrying about whether you can claim against the seller, does your son have full buildings and contents insurance to cover his immediate losses?

It seems a bit odd that the property has flooded twice in recent years but was not identified as a flood risk. Have you actually seen the environmental search result? Did he have any issues getting flood cover on his insurance?

Also, were the flood defences the previous owners mentioned still installed? If so, did son use them and they failed? 

Yes he originally had insurance but he did not mention that it had flooded because he didn’t know .. as soon as he found out he rang the insurance to tell them and they said they couldn’t insure him so he went with a different insurer.so he is fully insured but he would never  bought the house had he known it had flooded twice in the last three years. Yes he’s seen it and there’s no record of flooding.
he put the defences in even though he wasn’t sure how they went . They seemed to hold it but then it came up thru the floors 

Schwarzwald

Cazzy1964 said:

During conversation they told my son the property had flooded twice between 2019 and 2021! And they had told the vendor this and showed her how to use the flood defensers  He has since  found out the property was sold at auction. 

 

find out the auction house
contact them
ask / offer money to access the legal pack from back then
tell them you spoke to the former vendor, they would not obstruct a release of the documents, it was public back then anyway

long shot but worth a try

Schwarzwald

housebuyer143 said:

You can't blame the people for not wanting to get involved. 

I strongly disagree with this sentiment.
if they can help out somebody by purely providing some documents from back then, DO IT.
nobody asks them to take sides in this dispute, but if you have the opportunity to provide facts, i think it is the sincere thing to do so.

user1977

Schwarzwald said:

Cazzy1964 said:

During conversation they told my son the property had flooded twice between 2019 and 2021! And they had told the vendor this and showed her how to use the flood defensers  He has since  found out the property was sold at auction. 

 

find out the auction house
contact them
ask / offer money to access the legal pack from back then
tell them you spoke to the former vendor, they would not obstruct a release of the documents, it was public back then anyway

long shot but worth a try

I doubt it's even worth a try. A vendor in an auction is not going to have volunteered any info about previous flooding unless they were crazy.

R3dders

I recalled reading something similar in the press several years ago and found this on a google search.  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3249541/Sellers-said-riverside-home-never-flood-Buyer-wins-150-000-legal-victory-previous-owner-lied-risk.html. Although it ended on a positive note, I can see that there is a danger of significant costs to your son and a lot of evidence to be gathered.  Does the home insurance policy have legal cover.  Good luck.

Alderbank

R3dders said:

I recalled reading something similar in the press several years ago and found this on a google search.  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3249541/Sellers-said-riverside-home-never-flood-Buyer-wins-150-000-legal-victory-previous-owner-lied-risk.html. Although it ended on a positive note, I can see that there is a danger of significant costs to your son and a lot of evidence to be gathered.  Does the home insurance policy have legal cover.  Good luck.

Very interesting post, excellent piece of research!

But ending on a positive note? Perhaps for the lawyers maybe, but not for buyer or seller.

The buyer claimed losses of £125,000 but the court awarded him less than half that. 'We were extremely disappointed we only got £57,000 compensation.’ he said.

The seller said, 'I’m 63 next year and I have lost everything.’

homersimpson246

What does the property information form from the vendor your son bought from say?  Does it say has the property ever flooded or does it ask if its flooded in your ownership?  How has the vendor responded?

If the question was has it ever flooded and they have answered not known or not to my knowledge (bearing in mind a question that open would be hard/impossible to answer in some circumstances such as for houses that are 100's of years old and so it might not be a clear cut as it sounds). 

If they answered not to my knowledge then you have to prove that the previous vendor knew and they might just say they didn't read the auction particulars/reports.  Just because information was availble does not mean that they knew or that you can prove that they did.  If they were a property developer you would probably have more likelyhood of success but if they are a pensioner with a disabled husband then its going to be hard.

It would be worth looking at what measures if any could be undertaken to help prevent this happening again, you say water came up through the floor, is it a timber floored house?

Cazzy1964

homersimpson246 said:

What does the property information form from the vendor your son bought from say?  Does it say has the property ever flooded or does it ask if its flooded in your ownership?  How has the vendor responded?

If the question was has it ever flooded and they have answered not known or not to my knowledge (bearing in mind a question that open would be hard/impossible to answer in some circumstances such as for houses that are 100's of years old and so it might not be a clear cut as it sounds). 

If they answered not to my knowledge then you have to prove that the previous vendor knew and they might just say they didn't read the auction particulars/reports.  Just because information was availble does not mean that they knew or that you can prove that they did.  If they were a property developer you would probably have more likelyhood of success but if they are a pensioner with a disabled husband then its going to be hard.

It would be worth looking at what measures if any could be undertaken to help prevent this happening again, you say water came up through the floor, is it a timber floored house?

homersimpson246 said:

What does the property information form from the vendor your son bought from say?  Does it say has the property ever flooded or does it ask if its flooded in your ownership?  How has the vendor responded?

If the question was has it ever flooded and they have answered not known or not to my knowledge (bearing in mind a question that open would be hard/impossible to answer in some circumstances such as for houses that are 100's of years old and so it might not be a clear cut as it sounds). 

If they answered not to my knowledge then you have to prove that the previous vendor knew and they might just say they didn't read the auction particulars/reports.  Just because information was availble does not mean that they knew or that you can prove that they did.  If they were a property developer you would probably have more likelyhood of success but if they are a pensioner with a disabled husband then its going to be hard.

It would be worth looking at what measures if any could be undertaken to help prevent this happening again, you say water came up through the floor, is it a timber floored house?

homersimpson246 said:

What does the property information form from the vendor your son bought from say?  Does it say has the property ever flooded or does it ask if its flooded in your ownership?  How has the vendor responded?

If the question was has it ever flooded and they have answered not known or not to my knowledge (bearing in mind a question that open would be hard/impossible to answer in some circumstances such as for houses that are 100's of years old and so it might not be a clear cut as it sounds). 

If they answered not to my knowledge then you have to prove that the previous vendor knew and they might just say they didn't read the auction particulars/reports.  Just because information was availble does not mean that they knew or that you can prove that they did.  If they were a property developer you would probably have more likelyhood of success but if they are a pensioner with a disabled husband then its going to be hard.

It would be worth looking at what measures if any could be undertaken to help prevent this happening again, you say water came up through the floor, is it a timber floored house?

homersimpson246 said:

What does the property information form from the vendor your son bought from say?  Does it say has the property ever flooded or does it ask if its flooded in your ownership?  How has the vendor responded?

If the question was has it ever flooded and they have answered not known or not to my knowledge (bearing in mind a question that open would be hard/impossible to answer in some circumstances such as for houses that are 100's of years old and so it might not be a clear cut as it sounds). 

If they answered not to my knowledge then you have to prove that the previous vendor knew and they might just say they didn't read the auction particulars/reports.  Just because information was availble does not mean that they knew or that you can prove that they did.  If they were a property developer you would probably have more likelyhood of success but if they are a pensioner with a disabled husband then its going to be hard.

It would be worth looking at what measures if any could be undertaken to help prevent this happening again, you say water came up through the floor, is it a timber floored house?

homersimpson246 said:

What does the property information form from the vendor your son bought from say?  Does it say has the property ever flooded or does it ask if its flooded in your ownership?  How has the vendor responded?

If the question was has it ever flooded and they have answered not known or not to my knowledge (bearing in mind a question that open would be hard/impossible to answer in some circumstances such as for houses that are 100's of years old and so it might not be a clear cut as it sounds). 

If they answered not to my knowledge then you have to prove that the previous vendor knew and they might just say they didn't read the auction particulars/reports.  Just because information was availble does not mean that they knew or that you can prove that they did.  If they were a property developer you would probably have more likelyhood of success but if they are a pensioner with a disabled husband then its going to be hard.

It would be worth looking at what measures if any could be undertaken to help prevent this happening again, you say water came up through the floor, is it a timber floored house?

It says on the form, has the property ever been flooded.it doesn’t really matter who they are .. if they can prove she is lying he will take her to
 court. 
 she’s already left loads of rubbish at the property and then lied and said my son said she could! My son has three small children and he’s already been told by the solicitor the judge will merely look at the facts and is not interested in how much stress it has caused him  so I doubt the judge will take into consideration she is a pensioner with a disabled husband. 

Schwarzwald

user1977 said:

Schwarzwald said:

Cazzy1964 said:

During conversation they told my son the property had flooded twice between 2019 and 2021! And they had told the vendor this and showed her how to use the flood defensers  He has since  found out the property was sold at auction. 

 

find out the auction house
contact them
ask / offer money to access the legal pack from back then
tell them you spoke to the former vendor, they would not obstruct a release of the documents, it was public back then anyway

long shot but worth a try

I doubt it's even worth a try. A vendor in an auction is not going to have volunteered any info about previous flooding unless they were crazy.

unless the reason it was sold on auction maybe was .... flooding?
the Vendor-1 is described as rather forthcoming with information.
but remains a long shot, i agree, but enquiring also doesnt really costs anything. whats there to lose?